SPOUT AM) SCIKNCK ON THE 



vented our startinLr for another fortni«j:lit, but at 

 last on February 10, we set out from T'ai-yiian Fu 

 with a somewhat meagre equipment of four mules 

 and one pony, together with three natives. 



A ghuiee at the map of China will sufliee to show 

 the reader the position of the Ordos Desert. It is 

 situated w ithin a mighty loop of the Yellow River 

 innnediately north of Shcnsi, from whieh province 

 it is divided by the Great Wall. The Ordos is 

 known to the Chinese asTs'ao-ti (grass land), and 

 the only information we could glean concerning 

 it was that it was an immense wilderness of sand 

 and coarse scrub, in which wild Tartars lived, 

 and where hardy races of small ponies and cattle 

 were bred. 



This sounded interesting, though hardly favour- 

 able to our purpose of making a large collection. 

 Nevertheless our instructions were definite on the 

 subject, so we set about attaining the end in view 

 as best we could. 



We found that by travelling due west we could 

 have reached Yii-lin Fu on the border of the desert 

 in fourteen days, but this would have brought 

 us to the country at a time of year when the 

 weather would have been most unsuitable for the 

 collecting of small mammals, and much valuable 

 time would have been wasted. 



We therefore decided to travel south-west to 

 Yen-an Fu in North Central Shensi, and from 

 there work north-west, to the southernmost point 



6 



